Hayward School

Hayward School. . For more than a century, the educational needs of children in this area have been served by six successive schools. On April 17, 1872, the Wayne Township District No. 10 School Board voted to "build a sod school house." Teacher Elsie Barnes held classes in the first school, a hillside dugout, from mid-August until mid-November., In 1873 a small frame building was moved next to the dugout to become the second school. It was used during the spring and summer but then was destroyed by a tornado. The board immediately built a replacement, and the third school was anchored firmly "on a stone foundation.", To meet increased enrollment, Oaks School was built at Fifth and La Mesa in 1889. This fourth school boasted a bell tower, two stoves, and a large dictionary. Moved to 12th Street and Valley View Road in 1926, it served the district for a total of 64 years., After O. A. Hayward donated two acres of land at 6100 West 12th Street, a fifth school was constructed in 1953 and named in his honor. Because of a gas leak, the building was abandoned in 1986. The present school, the sixth, opened two years later.